Dear William Taylor

I don’t believe my review was unjust in any way. The first property was in fact 'substandard'. Upon awareness of this was certainly not when you executed the tenancy. We were only told about the flooding after we had spent a while in your office after paying our first month’s rent and after handing us the keys. We were told about the issue and that an attempt had been made to fix the problem but nothing could be done and we would just not be able to use our living room when it was raining or for a few days after it had rained, but it's OK we'll put the all of the furniture on stilts. This is an almost direct quote from one of your staff members.
We visited to see the state of the property to see that the damp in that room was dangerously close to the electricity box and refused to move in. Which yes you allowed us to do. I did not state that we were obliged in any way.

Neither did I say that the second property we chose was not adequate. I believe the two maintenance issues you are referring to are when the front door handle snapped off (the same issue twice) - the handle was very weak and replaced with the same model. Thus we were locked out of our house which of course would need to be resolved within 24 hours! I see you didn't mention that we were promised that the electricity and gas prepayment meters would be converted so we could pay monthly before we moved in (August) and this was not fully resolved until Jan/Feb time.

About the deposit, anyone reading this in a contract with Martin and Co be prepared to fight extremely hard for your deposit like we had to. The house was cleaned thoroughly before checking out. Your comment 'there was a lack of cleaning throughout' is unfair as you only ever mentioned the bathroom and your attempt at charging us £49 to professionally clean the bathroom was overruled by the DPS. According to the DPS the checkout report was just a second copy of the inventory with added comments, not signed by you or us (we were never given the opportunity to see it). I am just trying to warn others to be very careful during checking out make sure everything is done correctly and insist to be present during their check out inspection. This was a mistake we made.
The point of my review was simply to share with others my bad experience with your company so that they can make an informed choice whether to choose you as an agent. I hope for their sake they avoid!!

Dear 'Annoyed' and All Agents,

Unfortunately these records are inaccurate and provide a very unjust view of your time with Martin & Co.

Under no circumstances do Martin & Co approve of sub-standard properties and the property in question unfortunately had suffered a flood as a result of extreme weather. Upon awareness of this the tenancy was not executed and further accommodation was offered - at no point was the tenant obliged to choose a further property exclusively through Martin & Co and a full refund was offered.

The property the tenant subsequently moved into was a newly renovated property including new kitchen, new bathroom, decor, carpets, furniture and central heating system - a show home standard.

Martin & Co employ a full time property manager who controls a team of qualified and fully insured contractors who responded within 24 hours to two maintenance issues during the 12 month tenancy.

There was no attempt made by Martin & Co to 'keep the deposit.' The property was returned to Martin & Co with damage to decor and furniture and a lack of cleaning throughout. The fully photographic inventory conducted at check in and check out provided unequivocal evidence that damage was caused during the tenancy. In line with Martin & Co's practices and legal obligations the deposit repayment was ultimately resolved using the DPS dispute resolution service.

If anyone would like to discuss this further I would welcome any thoughts or input so as to provide utter clarity on this matter.

William Taylor
Director
Martin & Co Huddersfield